Talk:Carlos Slim Helú

Sons
I removed the following sentence from section "world's richest person": He has 2 sons: Christian Ani (last name was changed) and Sean Flowers ( from his hispanic mother). (sic) Apart from being not appropriately placed (obviously should be in section family), the introduction speaks of three sons leading his "empire". Also, what was changed and what? --Ben T/C 05:42, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

It is a good thing you removed that information because it was not correct. Slim has three sons not just two and those are not their names. Also all three sons have the same mother and she was not Hispanic either. Both of Slim's parents were Lebanese immigrants and his wife Souraya was, as he is, a Mexican national born of Lebanese parentage. So his sons are 100% Lebanese ethnicity. I was born in Mexico but my parents were immigrants from Japan; although Mexico is my home and I speak Spanish and not Japanese, I am not "Hispanic" and the same goes for Slim and his sons. 76.22.241.84 (talk) 03:04, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.22.241.84 (talk) 03:03, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

I wonder if the H is his name is pronounced, since he's not of Spanish descent. 71.117.93.160 12:06, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Richest
According to the latest Forbes 400, C.S. Helu and Bill Gates are tied at $59B. Read here. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/54/richlist07_William-Gates-III_BH69.html

Someone should fix this. Animadictio 12:15, 1 October 2007 (UTC)AnimaDictio at animadictio@gmail.com


 * The thing about "richest-person-in-the-world" info is that it can change every day/week/month/quarter/year, depending on how each person's many stock shares are currently valued. Probably a better way to break this out is to say in the lead simply "He is one of the richest people in the world", which is pipe-linked to List of billionaires (2007), and then just update the link once per year (e.g., change "2007" to "2008"). (New article starts with each year, as seen at List of billionaires.) It's pointless to reinvent in each rich person's article all that discussion of how things are figured and the pros and cons and details, when you can simply transclude it from the main article about such things. Maybe I'll implement this plan soon if I get "free time" (ha ha). — Lumbercutter 23:02, 1 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Follow-up: It only took a minute to implement this plan, so I just did it now. — Lumbercutter 23:11, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Now he has 51 billion dollars pleaase change your post. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.179.9.65 (talk) 16:23, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

correction
the first sentence should read:

"Carlos Slim Helú, born January 28, 1940 in Mexico City, is a Mexican businessman and one of the wealthiest men in the world as of October 14, 2007."

not:

"Carlos Slim Helú, born January 28, 1940 in Mexico City, is a Mexican businessman and one of the wealthiest man in the world as of October 14, 2007."

64.91.205.144 (talk) 06:39, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

The first section of the Awards section should read:

"Slim has been awarded the Entrepreneurial Merit Medal of Honor from Mexico's Chamber of Commerce. He is a "gold patron" of the American Academy of Achievement,[8] and the Belgian government awarded him the Leopold II Commander Medal, CEO of the year in 2003 by Latin Trade business magazine and one year later CEO of the decade by the same magazine."

not:

"Slim has been awarded the Entrepreneurial Merit Medal of Honor from Mexico's Chamber of Commerce. He is a "gold patron" of the American Academy of Achievement,[8] and the Belgian government awarded him the Leopold II Commander Meda, CEO of the year in 2003 by Latin Trade business magazine and one year later CEO of the decade by the same magazine." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 160.39.105.141 (talk) 17:24, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Please don't remove footnotes
Looking at the history of this article, I can see that some editors have removed footnotes. Please don't do that unless the footnote doesn't actually back up the statement. It is OK to use the same reference multiple times in an article. In fact, if a particular reference backs up multiple statements in an article, then the reference should be reused. --JHP (talk) 05:11, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Ottoman Dynasty
why is this page listed in the Ottoman Dynasty category? Lee.shoe (talk) 06:21, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

OLPC
Is it worth mentioning that he has ordered thousands of "One laptop per child" laptops for mexican children? --88.73.219.26 (talk) 07:13, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

FORBES MISTAKE?
I must say something i noticed.The stock prices that were used for the list are from 11th of february.OK.Arcelormittal close price for 11th of febr is 67.82 you can see that on the site.Also,another thing you can see is mittal family stake which is 43.04%=623620000 million shares.If you make a multiplication 623620000 x 67.82 thats equal to 42293908400 billion dollars...why Forbes says its 45? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.72.69.137 (talk) 19:26, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

How the fuck did this guy become so rich?

I wish there was more information about this really... I mean, everyone knows the story of Warren Buffett and Gates but its like out of the blue some random Mexican guy suddenly becomes the second richest man in the world... how?

I just want more information on that.

World's Richest Man redirection
When I typed in "World's Richest Man" on search, it redirected me to here. I think we should change it to redirect to Warren Buffet or List of Billionaires. At least, it shouldn't redirect here since Helu is not richest man anymore.Stevv (talk) 20:35, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I noticed that his net worth is said to have increased as indicated by the green upward arrow yet the article states that his net worth is now 60 billion down from 68 billion a year ago. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.49.43.6 (talk) 18:39, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

Helú
You should remove and avoid mentioning his mother's maiden name "Helu" as if it were his surname. In many Latin American countries, a person is known by his/her name, surname and mother's maiden name. The comparison with the American usage is that the Americans use "name, middle name and surname (family name)". That's why many English speaking persons mistake the Mother's maiden name as if it were the surname or family name. Mr. Carlos Slim should be addressed as Mr. Slim, and NOT Mr. Helu. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.37.120.18 (talk) 22:27, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

On a different but related matter, whence comes "Helú" anyway? The article says his mother's maiden name is Haddad (a good Lebanese name) and that he "officially became Julián Slim Haddad by adding Haddad, his mother's surname, according to the Spanish-language naming customs" (quoting directly from the "Biography" section). 69.115.13.5 (talk) 14:50:21, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Haddad is Carlos grandmother's maiden name that belongs to his dad (Julian.) The section is not clear enough but if you re-read it you will see that this is true and that based on this logic Helú is his dad's WIFE'S maiden name. eGGz (talk) 05:16, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

CompUSA
There were two mentions of CompUSA in the "Achievements" section of the article. Together, they seemed redundant. The un-cited one implied that CompUSA still exists. I removed that one. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.200.171.125 (talk) 05:29, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Dry Good Store
Julián established a dry goods store called La Estrella del Oriente (Star of the Orient) in 1911 and purchased...

If he was born in 1940, how did he establish a store in 1911? Can someone verify the correct year? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Azmurath (talk • contribs) 03:25, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

THE TRUTH
Carlos Salinas de Gortari (Ex-president of Mexico)is behind all of this, best friend and business partner of Mr.Carlos Slim Helu TELMEX was a successful government company in Mexico, but once Salinas was running Mexico like a President, one of his wonderful ideas was sell this government company to his best friend Mr. Slim to make it 100% private company, after that, Slim became in one of the most richest guys in the entire world, and is important to say the next, in Mexico if you don't have a contract or agreement to get telecommunication services with TELMEX you will be uncommunicated, and just for the monopoly, yeah... you can't get telecommunication services with other company because other company doesn't even exist, the only choice is TELMEX, and if you've got phone service in Mexico is just with TELMEX, and is the only one telecommunication services provider in the entire Mexican nation. And you know why *CURRUPTION*and*MONOPOLY* Imagine if you and your buddies running a company to supply in your country whatever and the government helps you to shutdown all the competitors to make you the only one provider in the entire nation. What do you think going to happen, you wont be rich, you will be trillionare, right. That's what it was with Mr. Slim and Mr. Salinas. Mr. Slim is one of the richest guys in the world and owns TELMEX the only one provider of telecommunication services in the Mexican nation and he is so grateful and thankful to have a his best friend as a business partner Mr.Carlos Salinas. TELMEX was sold just for a few pesos in the 90's, approved by Mr. Salinas who was the president in that time. TELMEX is a multimillionaire company. When TELMEX was operated and owned by the Mexican government the profit were designated to strength the Mexican economy. Now then, Mr. Salinas and Mr. Slim are living la vida loca, joining the pleasures of their empire made it against the rights of all the mexican —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.112.124.223 (talk) 07:59, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Lebanese
Where in the manual of style does it say not to mention a person's origin? His parents are both Lebanese and his wife is Lebanese, so how Mexican is he really? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.42.180.106 (talk) 03:41, 30 November 2008 (UTC)


 * from Manual of Style_(biographies):
 * The opening paragraph should give:
 * Nationality –
 * In the normal case this will mean the country of which the person is a citizen or national, or was a citizen when the person became notable.
 * Ethnicity should generally not be emphasized in the opening unless it is relevant to the subject's notability.
 * bogdan (talk) 22:11, 30 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Mexican is not an ethnicity, rather a nationality, If you are born in Mexico, you are Mexican. Slim is Lebanese Mexican. For example if a Mexican is born in the USA, he would be called Mexican American.
 * Right, so the lead should say Lebanese Mexican, not just Mexican, just as Oscar de la Hoya's article calls him Mexican American.
 * I corrected that article as well. bogdan (talk) 22:56, 1 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I am OK with that, unless anyone else has any objections and reasons for those objections.


 * it was mentioned that he is christian. I think it is enough without(non muslim) and he is loved for what ever is his religion. Bravo for him, and thanks to his parents Lebanese for bringing him to life. god bless.


 * I, for one, wondered why the article provided his name in Arabic until I saw that he was a Maronite and assumed he was Lebanese. Papna (talk) 05:21, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Can we please stop calling tycoons philantropists?
I guess people get paid for that but lets just delete it for the sake of truth. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.189.220.32 (talk) 12:56, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
 * "Philanthropist". "Philanthropy is the act of donating money, goods, services, time and/or effort to support a socially beneficial cause, with a defined objective and with no financial or material reward to the donor." Does being extremely wealthy somehow disqualify one from committing philanthropy as well? --jpgordon&#8711;&#8710;&#8711;&#8710; 15:57, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Having your wealth come from a parasitic government-sanctioned monopoly that sucks the wealth from a captive market does disqualify one from “loving men".  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.189.241.105 (talk) 09:32, 22 January 2009 (UTC)
 * No, it doesn't. One can be both a vile oligarch and a lover of men. It's not a black-and-white world. --jpgordon&#8711;&#8710;&#8711;&#8710; 16:48, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Personal life
There should be a section on his personal life. There are reports that he is dating Princess Nour of Jordan.Пипумбрик (talk) 03:32, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Poverty Rate and GDP Per Capita
The 50% of Mexico lives under poverty is poorly sourced- please see this http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDI_2008_EN_Tables.pdf on page 33, its 4.8%, if you can prove otherwise I will have to delete some of the data, same goes for GDP per Capita, we both know its higher. My info is from the Human Develpment indices developed by United Nations, where yours is from Business Week. Jesusmariajalisco (talk) 20:20, 27 May 2009 (UTC)


 * This crap of 50% of Mexico living under poverty is nothing but propaganda and the typical example of how Americans are always trying to portray Mexico as the mos forlorn place on Earth. Please don't post this kind of rubbish without proper sources. Economic Inequality remains higher in other so-called prosperous countries such as Chile but as I see many people are happy relying on stereotypes and received ideas rather than on hard facts.--129.102.254.253 (talk) 13:46, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

I've already found a better source, so the 50% figure has been changed to the United nations world bank figure of 17%. Jesusmariajalisco (talk) 18:47, 5 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Is Business Week a reliable source?
 * In any case, I would suggest that instead of just deleting sourced material, you could re-word the sentence to convey the message of disparity that the souce is trying to show.
 * By the way, the link you're providing says 17.6% (See under National poverty line)
 * Likeminas (talk) 20:44, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

But you are using the $2 or less a day from Business week which is 4.8, 17.6% do live under poverty, so we can use that one as well. How would you suggest we word the section? Jesusmariajalisco (talk) 20:47, 27 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Alright, I changed the figures to the ones provided by the IMF and UN respectively.
 * Likeminas (talk) 22:52, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the update Likeminas Jesusmariajalisco (talk) 22:57, 27 May 2009 (UTC)